The Engage&Empower project aims to identify the main priorities of the LGBTI community in Romania using community organizing techniques that MozaiQ LGBT Association has already been successfully implementing for the last few years. The project focuses on community work in six cities of Romania with the purpose of identifying the advocacy priorities of the LGBTI community in Romania. The work conducted in the selected cities will facilitate the development of an informal network that will be consolidated throughout the implementation of the project. Subsequently, the project aims to build a national advocacy campaign based on one essential element captured in a research regarding the LGBTI community consultation sessions results, to which a national study concerning the Romanian people’s attitude towards the main LGBTI topics is added. The advocacy campaigns will place on the public agenda three main advocacy topics of the community that were identified throughout the consultation process with the national network and the prior research study. The project also proposes a monitoring instrument with regard to the LGBTI public policies through the development of a Index concerning the legislation and public policies directly connected to the needs of the LGBTI community.

Project Objectives:

• Increasing the advocacy capacity of a National Network comprised of 6 LGBTI initiative groups through consultation techniques and organization on local and national levels for a period of 17 months.

• Identifying 3 advocacy themes proper for attracting the public’s support through sociological instruments for a period of 16 months.

• Influencing policy makers at the parliamentary, Government and local levels through the mobilization of the LGBTI community and its allies in protecting human rights and promoting equal treatment, by implementing three advocacy and communication campaigns over 11 months.